Origin stories are tricky things. When a world – cinematic, literary or otherwise – has been built, great care has to be put into everything else that gets layered onto or into it because everything you do after that can either help or harm what you’ve established. It’s not enough to build your house and give it a beautiful, solid structure. Your choice of finishings, paint, and the way you landscape should all work to complement this initial foundation that you’ve laid, and the same goes for cinematic universes like the Sony Spider-Man Universe(SSU) and their latest film, Madame Web.
The case of Madame Web is a curious one. Here we sit with a Sony property, and along comes a new character who seems consequential… or is she? We first ask ourselves, “Who is she?’. While we try to figure that out, we wonder, “Why is she getting her own movie?”. Our very own Megan Oosthuizen grappled with this very question, and it may be worth clicking over to her post quickly to read her thoughts when you have a moment. Then, as we gauge whether or not the answers to that are satisfactory, we also step back to see how this film fits into the bigger world.
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The Story
First things first, then. Madame Web is the story of Cassie Webb (played by Dakota Johnson), a young paramedic who finds her life turned upside down when, after attending to someone at the scene of an accident, she discovers that she has an ability that allows her to see or sense things before they happen. These abilities or powers (since we’re in superhero territory) were passed onto her by way of a spider bite stemming from an encounter the insect had with Cassie’s mother in the Amazon jungle. In a roundabout way, this encounter spares Cassie’s life but costs Constance (her mother) hers.
Enter the movie’s villain, Ezekiel Sims (played by Tahar Rahim). We first meet him when he holds Constance up at gunpoint in the Amazon and steals some valuable research (and a mystical spider) that she had painstakingly worked to collect while on her expedition. Many years later, specifically in 2003, when most of the movie’s events occur, we meet Ezekiel again. This time, he’s wealthy – presumably from profiting off what he stole from Constance – and obsessing over a recurring dream or vision that he has of being murdered by three unknown young women. The connection the movie eventually makes between protagonist and antagonist is that Cassie must use her powers – which she is still trying to accept and understand – to protect these three unknown girls from being killed by Sims, who has ploughed considerable resources into tracking them down. On the sidelines of Cassie’s story is her friend and work partner, Ben Parker (Adam Scott), Spider-Man’s uncle, whom she enlists to help her protect the girls while trying to make sense of what she’s discovering about herself and her past. Though we know the Parker name is significant in the world of Spideys, Ben is a lightweight character in Madame Web.
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A Lead Character?
There’s a lot going on in this film and much to try and figure out. It can become quite frustrating when the characters are as baffled about what’s going on as much as the audience. Everybody is looking for answers, and there isn’t anyone to give them. Unfortunately, even an incredibly expository Peruvian cave appearance by the suave José María Yazpik doesn’t do enough. Coming back to my opening statement, origin stories are tricky things. It’s not unusual for there to be a healthy amount of confusion and uncertainty when the audience and the characters ask, “What’s going on here?”. That’s the building block of stories, after all, and it should eventually lead to resolution. However, at a fundamental level, what seems to be lacking in Madame Web is a lead character who demonstrates that she deeply cares about everything that’s going on, thereby transferring that sense of urgency and care onto us as the viewers.
As I watched the film, I couldn’t quite figure out if this blasé ‘vibe’ I got was a function of Dakota Johnson’s style of acting, a badly written script, poor directing or just an unfortunate combination of all three. The lead character seemed oddly disengaged, although some high-stakes happenings were going on around her, and somehow, that made me not care, too. It didn’t bother me so much that there were a lot of other questions raised within the movie that were unanswered. With franchises like these, you can often satisfy yourself by arguing that it’s a setup for a sequel. However, I have no answers for why connecting with the main character was so challenging, no matter how hard I tried. So much so that any other criticism I could make about this movie would seem like joining the chorus of voices panning the film, which I don’t see the point of.
For all its problem areas, the thing I did enjoy about Madame Web was the way it brought female characters to the forefront of the still-under-construction SSU. Whether these characters are convincing enough as flag-bearers for this project is debatable. Secondly, Madame Web is assured in this respect: it knows it’s there to lay the groundwork for future SSU projects. This is why, for all the questions it raises, it makes no massive attempt to answer them all or help us reach any definitive conclusions. Still, what’s worrying about the execution, in terms of the story and how it’s written, directed and performed, is that it doesn’t do a particularly great job of setting itself up for a future in which those questions will be answered. An origin story is only helpful if it plays its role well in preparing us for everything else that will follow, and sadly, I’m not sure Madame Web does that at all.
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What are your impressions of Madame Web?
Madame Web |
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Cassandra Webb develops the power to see the future. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women bound for powerful destinies, if they can all survive a deadly present. |
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| Studio: Marvel Entertainment |
| Running Time: 1h 57min |
| Release Date: February 14, 2024 |
| Cast: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced |
| Director: S.J. Clarkson |
| Writers: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, S.J. Clarkson |
| Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery & thriller |
| Box Office: N/A |
The Review
Madame Web
Madame Web is a movie that feels like it has responsibility on its shoulders, yet in important areas like writing, directing and performance, doesn't quite deliver.
